F-15 Combat guide by Sryan
The F-15 is a great plane to get started with about air combat in DCS world. Taking only
weeks to months to master her avionics and systems, compared to the years most of us need
for a full DCS module. It’s also a fun plane to unwind in after flying the more complicated
DCS aircraft. I specialised this guide into combat applications. So things like landing it,
starting up or how to navigate is best learned elsewhere, like in the manual. I wrote the guide
so that someone transitioning from civilian sims or aerobatics can still understand everything.
So some things may appear very mundane to the more experienced here. There are many
functions in the F-15, and many of them are useful in combat. I recommend you set up some
or most of those to your stick and throttle, depending on what you have and what you’re
comfortable with. But for your convenience I’ll add the default keyboard commands for most
of them. I will also repeat abbreviations often in order to allow yourself to get used to them.
Let’s get started, shall we?
INTRODUCTION: COCKPIT AND FUEL
Let’s take a look at what cockpit elements are useful in combat, besides the HUD.
Starting from the bottom left and then following clockwise we are seeing the:


MPCD (Multipurpose Color Display) Useful as it displays current stores and
remaining countermeasures and ammunition.
VSD (Vertical Situation Display) The ‘radar’ screen.
switching over to the right side we now see the:
F-15 Combat Guide
1



TEWS (Tactical Electronic Warfare System) but let’s call it the RWR (Radar Warning
Receiver)
CMS (Counter Measure Systems) lights
The fuel indication
Perhaps you did not expect the fuel indication in a combat guide, but I thought it would be a
useful place to start. After all, no plane gets very far without fuel. A fighter that can fly very
far can be useful, and for that reason alone the Russians put over 8 metric tons of fuel in some
of their models. Fuel has disadvantages though. It’s heavy, and heavy things tend to be slow
and unmaneuverable. Not very good attributes for a fighter. The United States Army Air
Corps already had a solution for this during the second world war. Drop tanks. These drop
tanks allow the F-15 to have decent range, while retaining maximum maneuverabilty and
speed in combat.
In order to read the level of fuel in the drop tanks, we need to put the system on external. The
marked grey knob is operated with SHIFT-D. The red marked displays then read the amount
of fuel in the drop tanks. There is also a display that reads the total amount of fuel carried.
And an analogue system that reads fuel carried internally. It’s important to note that this
analogue indicator only measures up to 12 000 pounds! In reality, more fuel can be carried
internally, up to around 13 500 pounds. So if the analogue indicator starts spinning
backwards, the drop tanks should have been dropped long ago. This is why it is best to work
F-15 Combat Guide
2
the grey knob and check drop tank fuel level actively instead of waiting for the analogue
system to do its job.
The presence of drop tanks or not is indicated on the MPCD (Multi-purpose color display). In
this case I dropped my external tanks. But kept my central fuel tank. You can see this because
the outboard indicators say “PYLON” while the central indicator says “FUEL”. You can drop
your tanks by pressing CTRL-W. Be careful not to hit that to many times or you will also start
dropping stores! You can also drop all three tanks at once with ALT-R. This way you also
don’t need to worry about dropping stores. If you still think you’re to heavy to accomplish the
mission, you can dump more fuel by holding R. While we are here, it is useful to see that the
top-left also has an indication for amount of gun ammo left. “940”. And the amount of chaffs
and flares remaining on the top-right.
I’ll discuss the rest of the cockpit elements when the time is right.
WEAPONS
The F-15 is capable of carrying 4 different types of weapons. the AIM-120, the AIM-7, the
AIM-9 and the M61 Vulcan.
F-15 Combat Guide
3
The AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile is the most modern, most
advanced, most important weapon found on the F-15. Its most important attribute is that it
carries a so called active radar. This means that after the missile is fired, it will communicate
with the F-15 for some time, through a datalink. This allows the AMRAAM to change it’s
course in mid-flight. After a certain moment has passed, called “pitbull”, the AMRAAM
activates its own radar and continues the flight on its own. The F-15 can drop the lock and
engage something else, or defend itself against missiles or other bandits. If the lock is lost in
mid-flight. The AMRAAM will remember the last calculated spot and go active (pitbull) there
anyway.
The AIM-7 is a relic when compared to the AMRAAM. The most important difference is that
it does not carry a radar-tranceiver. It instead only carries a radar-receiver. The F-15 must
maintain the lock all the way to weapon impact.
F-15 Combat Guide
4
The last missile available to the F-15 is the AIM-9. While much shorter ranged than the
previous mentioned models, the AIM-9 is guided by locking on to an infrared light radiation
source. This means aiming and shooting this missile won’t cause you to appear on the
enemy’s radar warning receiver. the AIM-9 Sidewinder cannot be mounted directly under the
fuselage, only on outboard stations.
F-15 Combat Guide
5
The last weapon carried by the F-15 is the on-board M61 Vulcan. Carrying 940 rounds, the F15 can sustain fire for about 9 seconds.
HUD modes: AACQ (Auto Acquisition)
Auto Acquisition modes are the easiest to fly and fight with. In these modes, the radar or
weapon will lock on the first target in sight. The maximum range is about 10 to 15 nautical
miles. The first one I want to talk about is vertical auto acquisition. You can enter this mode
by pressing “3”. Note that in vertical AACQ you can lock targets that are even higher than the
steel ring where the mirrors are mounted. Here’s the HUD indication for Vertical AACQ for,
in order, the Sparrow (AIM-7), the Sidewinder (AIM-9) and the AMRAAM (AIM-120)
F-15 Combat Guide
6
The next one is bore-sight mode. This pretty much speaks for itself. A small circle on the
HUD indicates what part of the HUD you need to put over the target. The range is the same.
Again the HUD symbology for the Sparrow, Sidewinder and AMRAAM.
The sidewinder also has a couple of his own Auto Acquisition modes. These can by cycled by
pressing “6”. The first one I want to talk about is the Seeker Caged mode. You typically enter
this mode the first time you press 6. The seeker-head is fixed and cannot move. This allows
for some very specific targeting, per example if you’re engaging a package of enemies and
you need to engage the highest threat.
The next sidewinder specific AACQ mode is the seeker uncaged mode. In this mode the
seeker can look around freely and lock targets in a much larger area.
F-15 Combat Guide
7
The last sidewinder specific AACQ mode is the seeker slaved mode. In this mode the radar is
active as well. If the radar finds a target, it will direct the Sidewinder seekerhead to the target.
This allows by far the longest locking distance for the Sidewinder, up to around 18km in my
experience. Note that the radar is on, though. You’ll appear on the RWR of your enemy, but
they won’t be warned should you choose to launch. You go into this mode by being in a
Sidewinder AACQ mode in the first place and then pressing ” i “.
F-15 Combat Guide
8
The last Auto Acquisition mode there is is gun AACQ. Unfortunately the only way to check if
you are in this mode is by checking if your VSD (Vertical Situation Display) is displaying any
symbols. If there are no symbols, just the grid, you are not in gun AACQ. If there are symbols
like in the image, you are in gun AACQ. You can get into gun AACQ by pressing “C” to go
to guns mode and then pressing ” i ” to toggle Gun AACQ. Gun AACQ will give your
position away on the RWR.
F-15 Combat Guide
9
GUN AACQ is active in this image
LOCK!
Let’s take a look at some symbols on the HUD with a little more detail. Some symbols appear
both in the combat modes (AACQ and BVR) and when a lock has been achieved. Let’s start
with the weapon indicator.
F-15 Combat Guide
10



A means AMRAAM
4 means 4 AMRAAMs left
C means it’s the C model of the AIM-120.
F-15 Combat Guide
11



M is for Sparrow. It probably means Medium ranged missile.
2 means 2 Sparrows let
M stands for AIM-7M
The M for sparrow is probably to deconflict with Sidewinder.
F-15 Combat Guide
12



S means Sidewinder
2 means 2 Sidewinders left
M means AIM-9M
Note that the number is also only for that specific model. So if you load 5 AIM-120C’s and 3
AIM-120B’s you would see A5C and A3B when pressing D to toggle weapons.
Now, let’s take a detailed look at when a lock has been achieved. The amount of information
can be overloading. We’ll go through this calmly, handling one color-coded arrow at a time.
F-15 Combat Guide
13
Let’s start from the bottom left. We see A2C. Do you still know what that means? Two
AMRAAMS of the C model. Below that you will find your speed, expressed in Mach. Below
that also your g-loading and the maximum G-force you can endure in that configuration.
On the bottom right, in the orange box, you’ll see the exact range to the target, the time it
would take for your missile to strike the target if it was fired now, and the aspect to the target.
The important thing to know about aspect if it’s H for Head-on, T for Tail aspect, L for Left
aspect (you are looking at the left side of your target and as such he is travelling to the left) or
R for right aspect (vice versa).
On the right, along the altitude-tape, you’ll find another range indication. On the top of that
you’ll see the scale. In this case the top of the scale indicates 10 nautical miles. the top stripe
_ on the scale indicates Rpi. This means Range Probable Intercept. At this range you should
be able to hit a target that won’t attempt to manoeuvre to defend itself. A bit lower on the left
of the scale we find the Caret (>) This is the exact position of the target on the range. The
number next to it indicates the rate of closure. In this case 535 knots. If this number is
negative, the target is getting away from you. The next stripe means RTR. Range Turn and
Run. A target pulling 9g moves or even turning around and trying to get away should still be
intercepted by the weapon. On the bottom we see another indication for the minimum range.
In the middle we’ll see a large circle. This is called the ASE circle. ASE stands for Allowable
Steering Error. We also see a small dot, that I boxed in a light blue rectangle. This is called
F-15 Combat Guide
14
the ASE dot. The more centered the dot is, the better the shot will be and the less the missile
will have to steer right after launch, which is a waste of energy. Remember the saying “For
the best shot, center the dot”. The ASE circle can grow or shrink depending mostly on range.
Attached to the circle we see a line that indicates the target direction of travel.
This is what you see when you locked a target in Gun AACQ (Auto Acquisition)
the + high on top of your HUD is your boresight. This is where your bullets will go. The
computer draws a line to the circle, which is where your bullets will be at the range of the
target. The system is very intuitive, put the circle over the target in order to shoot him down.
Note the thicker part on the circle, this is a visual indication of the range towards the target.
Use the size of the target and this indication to judge if the range is good to shoot.
Beyond Visual Range
For BVR, we’ll need to use the VSD (Vertical Situation Display, radar display) a lot. Let’s
take a look, shall we?
F-15 Combat Guide
15
The Radar display is divided into ranges. On the top-right. We see 40, that means the top line
is 40 nautical miles away. The next line is then 30 miles away, the one below that 20, the next
one 10 and the last one zero. If the Top right indicated 80 it would have been 80-60-40-20 and
if it had said 160 it would have meant 160-120-80-40. Targets that are further away than the
scan distance may still be shown along the top of the VSD display. Along the left side we see
18 and 0. This means that at the distance of the TDC (Target Designation Cursor) the radar
scans between an altitude of 18 000 and 0 feet. Note that technically the radar points lower
than that. So targets who are closer at low altitudes can still be spotted. You can slew the TDC
around with “,./;”
F-15 Combat Guide
16
It’s possible to change the altitude at which the radar scans. In the previous screenshot we
could see a target. As a way per example I have driven the radar into the ground now. You
can lower the altitude at which the radar scans by pressing RSHIFT . (Right Shift + dot). As
you can see we no longer see the target. It is vague because it is still in memory.
As another example I’m aiming the radar up into the sky now. Still we can only see what was
left in the memory. The enemy straight in front is not being picked up on scans. The key
combination to raise the scan altitude is RSHIFT ;
F-15 Combat Guide
17
It’s also possible to narrow down the scan zone. This results in faster scans of smaller areas.
You can enter this mode by pressing RCTRL –
It’s possible to slew the narrow scanning zone around. It will follow the TDC (Target
Designation Cursor).
F-15 Combat Guide
18
Time for our first practical example! AWACS has just called out a bandit somewhere on my
right!
By putting the radar into NARROW mode and putting the TDC all the way to the right I
prevent my radar from wasting time by scanning left of me. The bandit quickly shows up on
the scope.
Beyond Visual Range: Pulse Repetition Frequency
Let’s take a look at my current situation.
F-15 Combat Guide
19
One bandit is close-by and beaming me. Meaning the direction he is travelling in is
perpendicular to my own. Another bandit is further away but he’s hot, meaning he is coming
straight at me! Meanwhile, on the VSD. On the bottom left we constantly see some sort of
indication pulsing…
MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/
This is your PRF ( Pulse repetition frequency). A beautiful Wikipedia article was written
about PRF, and I’ll save you from explaining exactly what it means right now. What you need
to understand is that High PRF is good for detecting targets that are coming straight at you,
even at longer ranges. A Medium Pulse Repetition Frequency is good for detecting targets
that have a low closure rate, but not at high distances.
Let’s see what we get to see in the VSD (Vertical Situation Display), shall we?
F-15 Combat Guide
20
I’ve put her in Medium PRF. We can see that bandit close-by beaming us just fine. He’s about
22 nautical miles away.
This time I’ve put her on High PRF. Now we can see the bandit at 44 miles (Note the top
right!! The bars now mean 80-60-40-20!). No sight of that bandit just of my nose beaming
me.
F-15 Combat Guide
21
You should use your SA (Situational Awareness) to dictate what mode you’re in. If you
should expect a long range head-on, use high. If you expect to merge or fight a beaming
bandit, use MED. It may be ‘easy’ to just leave it on ILV ( Interleaved, pulsing med-high) but
it may be a bad idea. It would take a long time to scan the same airspace, in the same mode.
Allowing bandits to get close and then not allowing a lock because the airspace is scanned in
the wrong mode.
Beyond Visual range: Lock-on!
Let’s proceed to lock the target again. The amount of information will be enormous again.
Let’s calmly follow a clockwise pattern and use colour coded arrows to indicate what we’re
talking about. Some things are duplicate with what we’ve seen on the HUD. I’ll say the value
the indication reads out and then explain what it means.
Top-right. Red arrows



397, This is the speed of your target. Indicated in TAS (True Airspeed)
11R. Aspect again. I am looking at the right side of this target.
336, The targets course.
Right side, brown arrows
It’s important to realise that all these symbols are related to range.

The top arrow is pointing at some sort of triangle. This means Raero. Or Range
Aerodynamic. This is the maximum distance the weapon can travel. Think of it as the
distance the missile would fall on the ground or water if fired right now.
F-15 Combat Guide
22




879>, This the rate of closure, as well as the position of the target on the range scale.
Like on the HUD if the value is negative he is getting away from you. the > is called a
caret.
the _ This is called Rpi. This means Range Probable Intercept. It’s also on the HUD.
You will strike a target at this range that will not attempt to maneuvre to dodge the
weapon.
The top of the box indicates the start of Rtr. Range Turn and Run. Targets doing 9g or
trying to get away should still be destroyed if the caret is inside the box.
the bottom indicates minimum range for the weapon to fire.
Bottom. Grey arrows
In order to keep up with the clockwise pattern, we’ll do right to left.




M7SEC means that if fired now, the missile should impact in 7 seconds.
IL76. The F-15 is equiped with a piece of technology called NCTR ( Non-Cooperative
Target Recognition) Allowing it to detect the type of aircraft you are targetting. A lot
of times, and very often at long range, this place will say UKN (Unknown).
G 719 indicates your own speed. Indicated in knots as ground speed.
STT means Single Target Track. So only capable of following one target, but in high
quality, this opposes TWS (Track While Scan), we’ll get to that later.
Left, Yellow arrow
not much on this side fortunatly! phew!

13-1. This means the target flies at 13 100 feet altitude.
Center, Turquoise indications


ASE circle and ASE dot. ASE means Allowable Steering Error. Still remember this
from the previous chapters? For the best shot, Center the dot.
Something that looks like >|—– This is the target. With direction of travel. Keep on
the Display at all costs if possible.
SHOOT, SHOOT!
F-15 Combat Guide
23
When the F-15 computer thinks you are in a good position to take a shot, it will display a
small star below the target box. The yellow arrow indicates where. Note that it may still be a
bit to far as the F-15 is ‘okay’ with a shot at Rpi ( Range Probable Intercept) against fighters.
When a missile is airborne, the G indications dissapear. Two numbers appear, marked by red
arrows. If firing an AMRAAM, the left number means time to pitbull. How much time is left
untill the missile goes active and the lock can be dropped. the right number means time to
impact.
Beyond Visual Range: Track While Scan
The next chapter is about Track While Scan. You can enter TWS mode by pressing RCTRL i.
You can only use TWS in narrow mode. TWS has a few advantages.




When firing an AMRAAM, the RWR of the enemy will not indicate so untill Pitbull
It’s possible to lock several targets at once
It’s possible to engage several targets at once with AMRAAMs
You’ll get a limited amount of info about all enemies. More informative so than RWS
(Range while scan, the default radar mode)
I’ll explain TWS with a practical example.
F-15 Combat Guide
24
A number of ground-attack aircraft are enroute to engage us. There is not enough time to
shoot them down one by one.
I have entered TWS mode. This is done with RCTRL i. You can now see useful info as their
altitude ( the 13 above each target) and a line for their vector of travel. The bottom left now
indicates TWS. You are in the same PRF (Pulse Repetition Frequency) as you where in when
you left RWS (Range While Scan).
F-15 Combat Guide
25
I have started the locking proces. The first enemy has the >|—– shape again (Red arrow). This
is the primary target. You’ll see all sorts of info pop up you where used to from STT ( Single
Target Track), this info counts for him. The box indicates the secondary target (Blue arrow).
I carefully proceeded to lock all targets. In order to shoot them all down. I just need to press
the weapon release key and let go of it. Press it and let go, Press it and let go. The F-15 will
“smartly” guide each AMRAAM to a different target, in the order I locked them. If I wanted
F-15 Combat Guide
26
to go crazy I could repeat the process and guide 2 AMRAAMS onto each target. No enemy
gets warned until the first missile goes pitbull (although in my example the range is rather
short).
Tacview footage of this unfair 4 vs 1.
F-15 Combat Guide
27
I am forcing every bandit into defensive positions.
I ended up shooting down 2 and severely damaging a third.
Countermeasures and Self Defense
Let’s take a look at the cockpit elements important for self-defense.
F-15 Combat Guide
28
We’ll see the TEWS (Tactical Electronic Warfare System) Display, although we’re going to
call that RWR (Radar Warning Receiver) from now on. We also see the CMS
(CounterMeasure System) lights. Let’s start with those, as those are easy.
F-15 Combat Guide
29
The CHAFF and FLARE lights stay on for up to 3 seconds after they have been dropped. You
can drop both at the same time by pressing Q. You can drop specifically flares by pressing
DELETE and chaff by pressing INSERT. When the quantity of countermeasures gets low, the
MINIMUM light goes on. Refer to the MPCD (Multipurpose Color Display) for exact
quantities remaining.
Electronic Warfare
Perhaps you’ve ever seen an F-16 or A-10 passing by carrying some sort of pod.
This pod allowed them to perform electronic warfare, confusing hostiles radars. The most
important role for that equipment is to prevent the enemy from properly locking the aircraft.
However you will rarely see an F-15 with such a pod. The reason? The F-15 was designed
from the ground up to be good at E-WAR. This can be seen by the fact that, even for a fighter,
an exceptional amounts of antennas protrude from the fuselage.
For the experts, I know not all of these are related to ECM, like the rather big one wich is for
UHF on the spine of the aircraft.
I’ll try to give a rather short description of what these do. We’ll call it ECM, for Electronic
Countermeasures. Radar is good for two things. They’re right in the name of it. RAdio
F-15 Combat Guide
30
Detection And Ranging. It can detect if there are things out there in the first place, and it can
tell how far away it is. It’s mainly the last capability of radar that ECM messes with. Radar
works by sending pulse of electromagnetic radiation which moves at the speed of light (which
is also a form of electromagnetic radiation). The speed of light is very high, but not infinitely
high. About 300 000 000 metres per second. Or a bit over a billion kilometres per hour. The
time it would take for a radar pulse to reach a target and come back is measured in
microseconds, µs (pronounced as microsecond or musecond, mu is the greek letter µ). In
order to hit a fighter jet at 50km distance with a radar pulse, and then travel back to the source
takes 333µs. So if there’s always 333µs between sending a pulse and receiving it back, you
figured out the range to target.
But what if, just for fun you know, started emitting the same pulses as the hostile aircraft?
How much time does it then take for each pulse? 250µs? 100? 75? 20? 5? 0,25? Also wich
sent pulse belongs to wich received pulse? I don’t know because I am receiving more pulses
than I am sending out..
You now have a basic understanding of ECM. It’s important to know that ECM does not
conceal you in a layer of stealth or something. Quite the opposite. You’re being quite noisy
and easily detected. It’s just not possible to dial in the range. It’s possible to burn through
ECM at close ranges, roughly WVR (Within Visual Range).
F-15 Combat Guide
31
You turn on the ECM suite by pressing E. The X around the + will start to flash for about 10
seconds. After the 10 seconds the X stays on permantly. ECM is active, the rest is automatic.
It’s important to note that enemies can now send radar guided missiles locked on to your
jammer. Because they can’t calculate a range, they can only follow a pure pursuit course
(coming directly at you). You will receive no warning from this radar guided missile. The
mode is called HOJ (Home on Jam).
This is what it looks like on the radar display when a hostile is jamming you.
F-15 Combat Guide
32
Naturally. The F-15 is also capable of destroying hostile jammers. Note that HOJ is printed on
the screen in a very large fashion to warn the pilot he may be firing in some sort of degraded
mode. All sort of important info like target aspect, range direction of travel etcetera are
missing.
I’m Defensive: Infrared missiles!
Explaining how to defend against IR missiles is easier to do so than radar guided missiles. IR
missiles simply don’t give off any warning at all. You’ll find IR missiles mounted on shortranged air defense (SHORAD) systems, on enemy fighters, on some helicopters, as shoulder
fired weapons and as self-defense weapons on many aircraft like ground-attack planes.
F-15 Combat Guide
33
There’s honestly only two ways of knowing an IR missile is heading for you.


You visually saw the launch or the smoke from the rocket motor.
You had the SA (Situational Awareness) to understand you where in the WEZ
(weapons envelope zone) of an enemy.
What can you do?
F-15 Combat Guide
34



make some moves! You should not expect to defeat a missile with just manoeuvres,
but that doesn’t you should make it easy for the enemy. By doing manoeuvres you
force the missile to follow you. This expends valuable energy for the missile.
Drop a healthy amount of flares. In combination with the above, you can make
confusing patterns, maybe causing a missile to go for a flare instead.
Drop out of afterburners! Who would target a flare if you can go for a juicy
afterburner instead?
I’m defensive! Radar guided weapons
In this section I am going to explain how to defend against radar guided weapons. Now I
could tell you how to beam, what the 3-9 lines means, to deploy chaffs etcetera. But I thought
it to myself. What if I could really make you understand how a Pulse Doppler radar works?
That would be more beneficial than letting you make arbitrary maneuvres without
understanding reasons for succes or failure. With that in mind, I wrote the next chapter. It
applies both on the defensive against most enemy radar guided weapons, as well as when on
the offensive. After all, the F-15C is also equiped with a Pulse Doppler Radar. So recognize
when an enemy uses information like this against you and act accordingly.
F-15 Combat Guide
35
Terminator Vision: How does a Pulse Doppler Radar see
the world?
Whoever has seen a Pulse Doppler radar, wether in real life or in pictures, could think they are
pretty alien looking devices. A large electronic piece of equipment, with wires and tubing
coming in and out, and a large, often flat antenna at the end, wich usually has the ability to
move. This all hidden in a nosecone that is completely translucent, but only to radiowaves.
Surely there can be no comparison to something as mundane as the human body?
Technically, Radiowaves are waves of a type we call electromagnetic radiation. Another type
of electromagnetic radiation is.. Normal every day light. The very type coming of your screen
right now. There are major differences ofcourse. The cellphone right next to you can
communicate with the closest cell tower with no problems, while your vision is limited to the
very room you are in now. You cannot see very far in bad weather, but the radar at your local
airport has every nearby airplane on their scope. In order to visualize the radar, I’m going to
compress the wavelength, λ from metres into micrometers (µm) In order to allow you to see
them! Technically, a specific hue of yellow sits in the middle of the visible spectrum, but in
order for the best contrast I’m going to ‘calibrate’ my radar to green.
© NASA
F-15 Combat Guide
36
This is what you see with your own eyes when flying over a specific part of the Georgia
terrain near the mountains. beautiful, is it not?
This is the very same scenery as seen through a Pulse-Doppler radar. Important to note that all
the colours are gone. I’ll explain more about that later. Also the beautiful atmosphere, wich
F-15 Combat Guide
37
reflects a lot of blue colours, is not very good at reflecting radar waves. Any targets high in
the air have nothing but cold, dead space as their background.
We see an F-15 that is travelling away from us! but somehow it has a different colour than the
background. This is because by travelling away from us, the F-15 causes reflected radarwaves
to have a lower frequency, their wavelength elongated. This causes it to appear to be of a
different colour to the Pulse-Doppler radar. It is now very visible, and could possibly be
locked on to. This effect is called Redshift8.
F-15 Combat Guide
38
We now see an F-15 coming right at us! The effect is reversed. The frequency is increased,
the wavelength gets compressed. It now appears blue to the Pulse-Doppler radar!
This concludes the first learning objective of this chapter. A Pulse-Doppler radar is sensitive
to motion of objects closing in or receding.
© Universal Pictures
A vision based on movement. Quite useful when one has to fight fast-movers, don’t you
think? However, what would happen if we didn’t close in or recede from the doppler radar
all? Just perfectly sideways? We now don’t close in or recede from the radar any more than
the surrounding terrain.
F-15 Combat Guide
39
With only cold space as our background we are still very visible.
However with only terrain as background we become nearly invisible! An important thing to
remember is that it may take longer for a pulse to return from the background terrain than it
would from your jet. So under certain conditions ( either high altitude or at slant angles) The
lock could possibly be maintained.
F-15 Combat Guide
40
For the next learning objective. I have a task for you to do. I want you to look up some images
of 4th generation fighters. The F-16, The F-15 (naturally) and also some newer or stealth
designs. The F-117, the B-2, the F-22 and the F-35. I want you to take a good look at the air
intakes especially. Even to the untrained eye, it is apparent that the designers went through a
great deal of effort, even on the 4th gen, to hide the first stage compressor blades, “the fan”.
On the stealth designs, the fans are not visible at all from the outside. The fifth generation
US/NATO fighters appear to have some sort of system that can block the view on the fans,
called a diverterless inlet which also has other benefits. In-case you didn’t see any of those,
I’ll provide one image.
Image credit: ontheroger.proboards.com
With those images fresh in mind, let’s take a look at the complete opposite. An abomination
in terms of RCS (radar cross section). The A-10C Thunderbolt II. Also known as the
Warthog, a favorite aircraft for many readers of this article, I’m sure.
F-15 Combat Guide
41
In this angle, the Warthog is approaching us and thus appears blue. However, there is
something special about the fans. Fans typically move at a high subsonic speed. In this angle,
half of the blades are moving away from us,they appear red to our radar. The other half is
approaching us, and appear Violet (You can think of violet like blue, but worse). This effect is
about as attention grabbing to the Pulse-Doppler radar as a poison dart frog is to your
humanoid eyes. It is also an important component of the NCTR (Non-Cooperative Target
Recognition) system. The computer ‘understands’ these are the intakes and with other
parameters, calculates the distance between them and compares this with a table of known
aircraft models. The last thing is that the fan, by its very nature is, constantly moving. This
means that whenever a new pulse arrives at the target aircraft. The fan will be in a different
position. Each and every pulse than has a chance to be reflected ‘perfectly’ of a fan blade.
Increasing visibility. The chance is increased if the repetition frequency of the pulse is higher.
What are you supposed to learn? The F-15 may give his position and presence away if flying
directly at a hostile. That’s the only way you can get to see the fans on the F-15.
There is a weapon in your arsenal that allows you to defend yourself against radar.. It’s called
Chaff. Chaff are strips of aluminium, tin or plastic coated with a metal that reflect radar
waves. The purpose of this is to present ‘fake targets’ to the enemy.
F-15 Combat Guide
42
Chaffs are very hard to see under normal conditions. So I will use a cloud to represent chaff.
Like all other objects, Chaff appears coloured to the radar.
Chaff doesn’t fly very fast. It pretty much floats a few hundred milliseconds after it was
dropped. Like all other non-moving objects, it appears green. This radar is not fooled by the
enemy. Let’s hope the pilot had something nice to eat during his last meal because it was
F-15 Combat Guide
43
probably his last. Dropping chaff is near useless when approaching or receding from the
enemy. You can only hope a bundle of chaff blocks the radar from looking directly at you if
you are receding. So what happens if we combine the knowledge with what we learned
before? If we fly directly sideways and then deploy chaff?
A GIF for this exists on mudspike.com
Jackpot! Add in background clutter and it will be even more effective! With my knowledge
about Pulse-Doppler radars now shared, I’ll explain how to evade radar guided weapons.
The Radar Warning Receiver
F-15 Combat Guide
44
So here it is. The Radar Warning receiver. Can you guess which enemy is the closest? The
Clam Shell appears to be the closest to me. The MiG-29/Su27/33 seems to be a bit further of
and that SA-15 the furthest away.
F-15 Combat Guide
45
It turns out they are all more or less an equal distance away. This is the first learning
objective. The RWR cannot calculate any range. It just represents the received signal strength
by placing it closer to the center. Some units (A50,E3,EWR) are always ‘stuck’ on the outer
ring regardless of signal strength because they can never be a direct threat to you. Some units
are more energetic in their emissions (Like the “clamshell”) compared to others (Search radar
on an SA-15 Gauntlet)
F-15 Combat Guide
46
That SA-15 has got me locked!
Looks like I got rid of him Or did I? The RWR has full 360° coverage but there are two large
blindspots. The RWR cannot detect targets directly above or below you in a 45° cone. By
showing my belly to the Gauntlet I’m just exposing my blind side to him.
F-15 Combat Guide
47
F-15 Combat Guide
48
The results..
You’re in a tight spot.. Two of these guys are trying to kill you, the other two are trying to
save you, who do you run to cover for?
If you ran to the left you would have lived. If you ran to the right, you might have died. ..But
they’re all 15’s?
Some of these 15’s have a chevron (^) over them. That means they are airborne. These are F15’s. The other guys don’t have that. So they are SA-15 Gauntlets.
F-15 Combat Guide
49
Here we see 3 bandits illuminating me. The Bandit on my 8 ‘o clock is considered to be the
highest threat by the RWR. It is not doing anything special just yet but the RWR thinks this is
the most likely foe to take a shot at you. This is why it has a diamond around it. The Bandit
on my 5 ‘o clock was the last detected foe by my RWR. This why half a circle is drawn
around this bandit. When you hear the beeps that the RWR detects a new foe, you should look
for this circle for bearing and identification. So far there is nothing special about the third
bandit on my 2 ‘o clock.
F-15 Combat Guide
50
A bandit has me locked now. If he decides to shoot, the bottom circle will flash. I often heard
the question if people should beam the missile or the bandit. You should beam, if battlefield
conditions allow, the source of radiation. This where the Doppler effect originates from. If an
enemy aircraft is painting you, the radarwaves originate form that aircraft. Once the
radarwaves reach you, they get ‘recolored’ depending on your movement. The missile then
looks for these coloured waves. In case of an active missile (AIM-120 or R-77) You should,
again beam the source of radiation, so in that case the missile.
F-15 Combat Guide
51
Active radar missiles are indicated by an M
Okay who the hell is targeting me? By pressing RSHIFT-R you can change the RWR mode so
that only people locking on to you are shown! Great for quickly getting Situational awareness
in a cluttered enviroment.
F-15 Combat Guide
52
Anti-Air Artillery is always shown with an A on the RWR. It could be friendly Gepards or
PIVADS, it could also be a hostile Shilka, tread with caution.
The only exception is the SA-19 Grison, also known as the Tunguska. This shows as S6 on
the RWR. The S6 should concern you. It has both guns and, currently the only in DCS but
several systems like this exist, laser guided anti-air missiles. These missiles don’t give off any
F-15 Combat Guide
53
warning like heatseekers, except to planes equipped with a laser warning receiver like the A10 and Ka-50. These missiles can effectively reach out to about 8 to 10km.
Remember that by keeping the radiation source perfectly on your 3 ‘o clock or 9 ‘o clock you
have the best chance of defeating radar guided weapons, in combination with chaff. A few
small random movements can help as the Pro-Nav missiles will continually update their
course in an attempt to intercept you. Some maneuvres may help defeating missiles, like the
Immelmann or Split-S if battlefield conditions allow and the missile was fired close to its
maximum range, but you should rarely expect to defeat missiles with maneuvres alone. They
are typically way faster than you and can pull many more G forces than you can. Some more
advanced knowledge about defeating radar weapons is embedded in the following examples.
Practical examples
Long Range Fighting: A BVR fight.
No two fights are ever the same. I thought I’d share my standard procedure on how to handle
a BVR duel. you should adapt to the conditions though. I like to compare BVR fights to ILS
landings. When flying, it’s comfortable to look outside the aircraft and to the HUD for
indications. What safer place to position an enemy than in the center of the HUD? Like with
ILS landings, this can be a deadly mistake. It may take some learning to get your face out of
the HUD and relying on your instruments instead. Let’s take a look at the situation. Try not to
focus purely on the instruments either though. Keep track of what is going on outside as well
and don’t get sucked into the green goo!
F-15 Combat Guide
54
An enemy aircraft. with the same speed and the same altitude. We’re in a head-on.
F-15 Combat Guide
55
Since I know this is going to be a head-on I put the radar in HIGH PRF (Pulse Repetition
Frequency). This causes the enemy to quickly show up on the radar.
Immediately I decide to drop my tanks. Those big drag inducing things. This allow me to
attain my maximum speed. This is good for your missiles, because those missiles are like
your children. They inherit all your stuff. In this case I mean altitude and speed though. A
missile launched at low altitude at stall-speed will not get very far. A missile launched at 40
000 feet at mach 2.4 will get much much further.
The next image is a scary part for many new F-15 pilots. But a fact of life. Russian missiles
have more range than US ones. At least the R27-ER when compared to the AIM-120. You’ll
receive a launch warning before you are in range yourself. Not quite scared yet. I decide to
keep the ASE dot centered for a little while longer in order to close the gap.
F-15 Combat Guide
56
FOX-THREE! I fired this missile about halfway through RPI, Range Probable Intercept. I
don’t expect this missile to produce a kill. but the active radar will hopefully suppress my
enemy. I need to start worrying about that R-27 though.
I do something called Cranking. Instead of flying dead-on towards the target. I turn either left
or right, in this case right. To get the enemy as close, but not in excess of 60° of my side. The
missile could just float in the air before. Waiting long enough for me to fly into it. Now the
missile needs to spend energy to follow my turn, expending energy. The close rate is also
highly lowered, and the total distance travelled needed increased. Allow me to visualize.
F-15 Combat Guide
57
Allow me to apply some Paint art to get my point across.
F-15 Combat Guide
58
I started to turn back into him. As soon as I center the dot, I fire off my second AMRAAM. I
expect this to be the killer shot. From this point on, I start to regularly drop a few flares.
Reason being that deadly enemy R27-ET. An infrared guided missile that, while not as ranged
as the ER, is still a missile for the application at the medium range.
Tacview images of my second turn. You can see that R27-ER was not even capable of
keeping up the turn. Its energy is depleted. The first AMRAAM has the enemy suppressed.
He can’t risk pointing his nose at me in order to launch weapons.
F-15 Combat Guide
59
It turns out I was right. The killer AMRAAM strikes a few seconds before the suppressing
AMRAAM.
Advanced Practical Examples
Hyperspeed kill. Letting the Raytheon© brochure swell
with pride.
The situation is as follows: The Russians have conquered much of Georgia, However recent
fighting has seen the depletion or destruction of much valuable equipment and ammunition.
An IL-76 is inbound to resupply the Russians. Fearing rebel equipped with MANPADS
supplied by NATO, the IL-76 cruises at high speed, at high altitude. An SA-10 Grumble side
protects the airfield, and the Moskva cruiser is at sea (not visible, not even present really, but
let’s pretend it is). The Russians are not concerned about any air attack. NATO commanders
resenting the retirement of the F-14 and their AIM-54 Phoenix missile. It’s up to the USAF to
try the job using an F-15 with a pair of AIM-120 AMRAAMs. Even at the closest point, as
the Candid turns to land at the airport, the “depth” inside the WEZ (weapons envelope zone)
of the Grumble is over 40km. I just took off and am inbound, overland, from Turkey. It will
be my job to produce a kill from outside the WEZ.
F-15 Combat Guide
60
My first job is to set the radar up correctly. I’m expecting radar contact at an extreme
distance. So I’ll set the bar to 160-120-80-40-0. I put her in high PRF. and Narrow the scanzone down.
F-15 Combat Guide
61
The first part of training, about the fuel will come in handy. I’ve already ditched the heavy
tanks as I prepare to gain speed. It will be a duel about having less enough to be light enough
to reach high speeds. But also having enough to (virtually) make it back home.
Being low and slow at the start. I decide to remain level and accelerate to a high sub-sonic
mach number. Once I achieve that I proceed to climb – steeply – to about 40 000 feet.
F-15 Combat Guide
62
Having achieved just that I start to dive back down again. I have several reasons for this. By
gently pushing the stick forward instead of choosing for an instantaneous turn I artificially
lower my AoA (angle of attack). This reduces my drag allowing me to accelerate faster. The
thin air does not really feed my engines enough oxidizer for optimum acceleration and the
force of gravity can assist in my speed up. I proceed to slowly dive down to around 28 000
feet. Until the air proves to thick to really accelerate in.
F-15 Combat Guide
63
We have arrived at our first real learning objective for this example. Take a good look at the
speed indications, and tell me if you really understand their meaning.
When I wrote this guide I said I presumed you knew a thing or two about flying. Hence I did
not discuss say, the four fundamental forces of flight. This also means I presumed you
understood the difference between IAS,TAS,GS, CAS (Calibrated Airspeed) and Mach. If
you really do, feel free to skip ahead. But since I see many players not truly understanding, I
thought I would share some insights. If you do not understand why the HUD indicates a speed
of 500 knots. while the Mach indicator indicates 1.525 Mach, a speed beyond the transonic
region, and two weird numbers on the radar display, which are again both different. G 882
and T 884 ( That’s 700km/h faster than the HUD speed..) Then continue reading!
Many guides begin by explaining IAS, Indicated Air Speed. But I want to start with GS.
Ground speed. Ground Speed is something that everyone understands. You can think of
Ground Speed as your speed in 3D space, with the earth as our reference frame. If my job is at
a position 50km away, and my car drives at 50km/h, I will be there in 1 hour. If the airport I
F-15 Combat Guide
64
want to land at is 200 nautical miles away, and my plane is doing 200 knots GS, I will be
there in 1 hour.
It turns out planes don’t only care about their speed across the ground. Some time ago I saw a
plane taxi from one side of the airfield to another just to take off. But I am sure you didn’t
take another route to work this morning because the wind was blowing from the east!
Apparently they like it when the wind blows over their wings, it makes them feel.. Light as a
feather. So planes also measure their speed relative to the air surrounding them, as well as to
the ground below. Let’s recap what we learned so far in a short summary, using the car as our
example.
My car does 50km/h and the wind blows with 20km/h. Directly head-on for demonstration
purposes.



My car is driving at 50km/h across the ground (50km/h GS)
My car is.. moving through the air at a speed of 70km/h indicated (IAS) if I would live
at sea-level.
My car is moving through the air at a (guesstimated) speed of 64km/h indicated (IAS)
If I lived 3km high in the mountains.
I can hear you thinking.. What the…? you didn’t tell us about that! so allow me to explain.
The Indicated AirSpeed is measured by a device called a pitot tube. You can look around on
google what they look like. The ones mounted on the nose of the F-16 and MiG-29 are very
cool looking. Since I want you to explain how they work, and why you need to understand it,
I’ll grab a more technical drawing.
© Wikipedia.nl
Inside the pitot you can see two tubes. One appears to just be aimed downward. This device
measures the normal air-pressure. Let’s say this device measures the static pressure. The other
F-15 Combat Guide
65
part appears to be sitting in the wind. It measures what we shall call the dynamic pressure. By
calculating the differences the device can read out the indicated airspeed. But the device is
tied to pressure. At higher altitude, the pressure is lower. So the device gives a lower reading
than the actual True Airspeed is. Useless right? It turns out to be an advantage. The pressure
is related to the density. If the pitot tube is detecting a lower pressure, the wings will feel like
as if less air is moving across them, and they will want to provide less lift. They need a certain
amount of molecules moved over and under their wings in order to provide a certain amount
of lift. This means that critical flight regimes, like stalling, occurs at the same indicated speed
at all altitudes! I often hear people saying “IAS is your speed but with wind effects added”.
That is not false but the pressure/density system is also an important part! The winds don’t
exactly blow over 300 knots in my mission!
My statements are testable in the simulator. By taking the F-15 to extreme altitude, you will
stall, even at supersonic speed. Unfortunately not quite testable would be by taking an aircraft
to an altitude over 100km. Above this altitude, also known as the Kármán line, any wing will
stall if it was not already at orbital speed.
Getting to the point.. IAS is a pilot’s speed indicator. It tells important information about how
the aircraft is expected to behave at the given speed and altitude. Since you’re a pilot at any
given time you’re touching the controls it has a prominent spot on the HUD. with visualised
indications if it changing ( the HUD-tape). GS is the navigator’s speed indicator. It is useful
only when you need to work out to get from A to B. Not as important at any given time. It is
hidden on the VSD. You can also use your Mach to get an estimation for distance travelled. If
you are doing mach 0.8 you are doing about 8 miles a minute. at Mach 2.0 you’re doing about
20 miles a minute, True Airspeed is the combatant’s speed indicator. This gives the best
indication of what the bandit is doing compared to you and his airmass. If you understood
what CAS,IAS,TAS,GS and Mach where all about you can continue reading now.
F-15 Combat Guide
66
Studying the avionics has paid off. I achieve a lock on the bandit candid at 125 nautical miles.
About 231 kilometres.
I line up with the ASE (Allowable Steering Error) dot in order to achieve a perfect collision
course intercept (well.. it’s a head-on)
F-15 Combat Guide
67
Apparently my IAS still appears quite low. The groundspeed indicator reveals I am actually
moving at 2315km/h through the 3D environment.
F-15 Combat Guide
68
At near Mach 2.3 I pull up a little and let that missile fly! Distance to target: 64.5 miles or
120km. Time to pitbull: 65 seconds. time to impact: 74 seconds. The second missile follows
soon.
Both AMRAAMS reach a speed of nearly 6000km/h TS ( you can think of true speed as IAS,
but the pressure actually calibrated to the surrounding air. So this is the real speed compared
to the surrounding airmass. A pro-tip is that you can toggle between IAS and TS, and infobar
off completely using CTRL-Y)
F-15 Combat Guide
69
Since we have the bandit locked in TWS, we must manually work in order to keep the
radarcone on target.
AMRAAMs slamming through the windshield.
F-15 Combat Guide
70
F-15 doing a get away back to Turkish territories at 2768km/h True Airspeed.
So what about that SA-10 Grumble?
I never knew if I actually crossed into the SA-10 WEZ (Weapons Envelope Zone) or not. I
highly doubt it but you can never be sure. The SA-10 is no fool, however. An F-15
approaching at over twice the speed of sound is going to cross the WEZ sooner rather than
later, if he does at all. As faith would have it, the SA-10 decides the time is right took a shot
right as my slammers (AIM-120) come of the rail.The SA-10 predicts that I maintain my
course and enter the WEZ where the missile will be waiting for me. In the worst case I am
forced to divert, disabling me from accomplishing my mission. Technically this would count
as a successful mission completion for the Grumble, denying air superiority and power
projected from the air. Or so he thinks. The SA-10 is a weapon I rather not take any chances
with, as it is the second most potent anti-air weapon in the Russian arsenal, after the SA-21
which is not modelled in DCS.
F-15 Combat Guide
71
I’m at high speed, at high altitude, still around 40 000 feet. I turn away from the threat.
Attempting to get him on my 3-9 line and “turn green” to his radar. However I have options to
do more things. I could climb further, possibly use a passing space shuttle for cover. I could
dive back down low, or I could simply sustain my current altitude and try to keep my speed
up in the turn.
What do you think I would do? What would you do?
F-15 Combat Guide
72
By choosing to dive, the SA-10 reacts by choosing a low altitude course to intercept me. Let’s
first discuss what advantages I deny by not allowing him an opportunity to climb. A fighter
pilot who is low, but has speed, could choose to initiate a climb. This converts his speed into
altitude. The pilot might think this is an agreeable deal. After all, altitude is useful, and it can
be converted back into speed at the pilot’s command by diving. He trades his kinetic energy
for potential energy. A flying object which converts speed for altitude is like you converting
your money for gold and oil. The return product is still valuable. This also counts for a
surface to air missile. Also, under typical conditions, you will never win a climbing duel with
a missile.
Let’s now take a look at the disadvantages the SA-10 faces by choosing a low altitude flightpath. I’ll start with a commonly known one. That would be drag. At low altitudes, drag is
worse than at high altitude, because the air is denser. A flying object at low altitude must
spend energy to push the air out of his way in order to allow him to get to his objective. This
spends energy (more so than at altitude). This is like trading in your money for raw sewage.
Pushing air out of the way provides no benefits for flying objects, and neither does it for
surface to air missiles.
The next reason is probably not as known as drag. Before I mention the next hindering aspect
on missiles related to altitude, I want to talk about air pressure. Air pressure is all around us.
Take a look around the room, do you see any objects being destroyed by air pressure right
now? Probably not. So it’s probably not a significant force in air combat, right? A quick look
around on the internet reveals some interesting stuff.
F-15 Combat Guide
73
Apparently the forces caused by air pressure are capable of doing unspeakable things, if
allowed to manifest as is the case with a vacuum tank. At sea-level, the air pressure can exert
a maximum force of about 10.1 Newtons on each squared centimetre, or about 101000 N/m².
This is diminished as altitude increases. So how does this relate to air combat?
F-15 Combat Guide
74
©NASA
No need to pull out the scientific calculator just yet! I want you to understand the forces at
hand, being able to calculate them is not necessary. When a rocket motor ( Jet engines too, but
let’s disregard that effect for now) burns, super-heated gases are expelled from the nozzle.
This gas has to go somewhere. It will have to take a spot that was previously likely occupied
by air. With air being forced out of the way, air pressure is obliged to respond, with force.
This was seen in the rocket equation by the fact that that the ambient pressure P0 needs to be
deducted from the rocket pressure Pe in order for the rocket thrust equation to be correct.
F-15 Combat Guide
75
So whats the lesson for this chapter? If battlefield conditions allow, you should dive in order
to defeat a SAM without delay. Every second that the missile spends at low altitude is
advantageous. SAM motor burn times are measured in seconds, and every one of those spent
burning at low altitude is advantageous. So do not hesitate if you detect a launch.
My tactics actually Made the SA-10 dive. and fly at a very low altitude before figuring out he
would never reach me by keeping flying this low. These missiles where easily defeated.
Thanks for reading! This guide was originally published on www.Mudspike.com
Did you found this content useful? A donation would be a great motivator as write the
advanced counterpart to this guide, as well as guides for other aircraft I am writing.
F-15 Combat Guide
76
F-15 Combat Guide
77